Wannabe writer/critic currently selling PCs - and my soul - at PC World. Spent a lot of time crashi...
Wannabe writer/critic currently selling PCs - and my soul - at PC World. Spent a lot of time crashing intellectual parties in Prague. Now being nice on Ciao! UK.
Member since:13.12.2000
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After the harsh realities of combat inflicted on us by the likes of 'Saving Private Ryan', it's sometimes nice to settle back into a different era of war movies. Back when 'The Great Escape' was made, it didn't matter if the movie took a few liberties were taken with the story - as long as it was told in a manner that pleased us, then so be it.
So it's nice to see a bunch of Allied heroes running circles around benign prison guards. Reassuring to see people dodging 'A-Team'-style machine gun fire. And nice to know that all these flyers want to do when they break out of camp is to jump straight into another plane and get shot down again.
Some genius in the Nazi Prison Department comes up with the wise idea of putting all the most troublesome allied escapologists in one camp. They then provide them with all the stationary they need to make maps and forge documents, and plenty of gardening tools to steal and dig tunnels with. Not only that, the Germans decide to staff the camp with the most inept security guards this side of 'Hogan's Heroes'.
So realism isn't a factor. But who cares? Along with 'The Wizard of Oz', 'The Great Escape' has been lumped in that group of Christmas movies that haven't actually got anything to do with Christmas. And for all it's liberty taking with historical fact and melodramatic acting, it still has the gut power to have you clutching at the arm of your favourite chair as Steve McQueen tries to jump (Unsuccessfully) over a barbed wire fence for the 216th time.
Into the mix of Forgers, Scroungers and Tunnellers comes Richard Attenborough's 'Big X'. Understandably bitter after experiencing the hospitality of the Gestapo, X hatches a plan - to mount the biggest breakout ever and cause mayhem in Germany. With his new cohorts, he conspires to dig three seperate tunnels (Imaginatively named 'Tom, Dick and Harry') and break 250 men out of the camp.
That's the basic storyline, and it is stretched out over a three hour running time with tension, emotion and humour. Much of the enjoyment is seeing the all star cast playing off each other. James Garner's amiable Scrounger befriends short-sighted, tea loving Forger Donald Pleasance. James Coburn walks around with movie icon cool and a dodgy Australian accent, not doing very much. Charles Bronson is the closet claustrophic tunneller who chooses the worst possible moment to have a crack up.
Then there's Steve McQueen as the irrepressible Hilts. This is McQueen's OTHER iconic movie, and he's incorrectly remembered as the hero of the movie. Let's not forget that Hilts is responsible for Ives death. Now, imagine you're poor little Ives. And you have to spend a month sitting in a bare cell, listening to Steve McQueen bouncing his ball against the wall. Wouldn't you take your chances against machine gun turrets rather than face that again?
Hilts attempt at escape is undeniably exciting, but it's the little moments that really stick in the memory. The Forger's pin trick in a pathetic attempt to convince the committee his eye sight isn't too bad to tag along. Mac almost making it, before being caught out by his own language trick...many great moments here, all backed up by Bernstein's robust, tub-thumping score that has become an Honorary England Anthem.
There are more accurate and well acted war movies out there, but few as entertaining as this.
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Production Year: 1970 - War - Director: Brian G. Hutton - Original Language: English - Classification: Parental Guidance - Starring: Clint Eastwood, Telly Savalas, Carroll O'Connor, Donald Sutherland, Don Rickles, Gavin MacLeod
In 1943 the Germans opened Stalag Luft North a maximum-security prisoner-of-war camp ... more
designed to hold even the craftiest escape artist. In doing so however the Nazis unwittingly assembled the finest escape team in military history – brillia...
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